diff --git a/etc/SIPconfig.xml b/etc/SIPconfig.xml
index 4277004f00..f30fbf6f9c 100644
--- a/etc/SIPconfig.xml
+++ b/etc/SIPconfig.xml
@@ -5,6 +5,10 @@
 <!--
   Set Net::Server::PreFork runtime parameters
   syslog_ident will identify SIP2 Koha server entries in syslog
+  See documentation for Net::Server
+  user and group select what user the service should run as
+  if started as root (e.g. in server startup ) the server will switch to
+  this user after binding to the socket it is listening on
   For OpenSolaris, add: syslog_logsock=stream
 -->
   <server-params
@@ -13,6 +17,10 @@
     log_file='Sys::Syslog'
     syslog_ident='koha_sip'
     syslog_facility='local6'
+    setsid="1"
+    user='koha'
+    group='koha'
+    pid_file='/var/run/sipserver.pid'
   />
 
   <listeners>
@@ -121,4 +129,3 @@ in our case "ILS".
       <AllFinesNeedOverride>0</AllFinesNeedOverride>
 </syspref_overrides>
 
-</acsconfig>
diff --git a/misc/bin/sip_shutdown.sh b/misc/bin/sip_shutdown.sh
index 07abbce3f1..3545df9c92 100755
--- a/misc/bin/sip_shutdown.sh
+++ b/misc/bin/sip_shutdown.sh
@@ -1,19 +1,10 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
-. $HOME/.bash_profile
+#Terminates the session leader Sipserver which should terminate the children
+# The pidfile name is specified as a server parameter in the configuration
+# file
 
-# this is brittle: the primary server must have the lowest PPID
-# this is brittle: ps behavior is very platform-specific, only tested on Debian Etch
+PID_FILE=/var/run/sipserver.pid
 
-target="SIPServer";
-PROCPID=$(ps x -o pid,ppid,args --sort ppid | grep "$target" | grep -v grep | head -1 | awk '{print $1}');
+kill `cat $PID_FILE`
 
-if [ ! $PROCPID ] ; then
-    echo "No processes found for $target";
-    exit;
-fi
-
-echo "SIP Processes for this user ($USER):";
-ps x -o pid,ppid,args --sort ppid | grep "$target" | grep -v grep ;
-echo "Killing process #$PROCPID";
-kill $PROCPID;